Adherence to Personal Protective Equipment Guidelines During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Health Care Personnel in the United States.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

Protecting frontline health care workers with personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Through an online survey, we demonstrated variable adherence to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) PPE guidelines among health care personnel (HCP).

METHODS:

CDC guidelines for optimal and acceptable PPE usage in common situations faced by frontline health care workers were referenced to create a short online survey. The survey was distributed to national, statewide, and local professional organizations across the United States and to HCP, using a snowball sampling technique. Responses were collected between June 15 and July 17, 2020.

RESULTS:

Responses totaling 2245 were received from doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, and medical technicians in 44 states. Eight states with n > 20 (Arizona, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington) and a total of 436 responses are included in the quantitative analysis. Adherence to CDC guidelines was observed to be highest in the scenario of patient contact when COVID-19 was not suspected (86.47%) and lowest when carrying out aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) (42.47%).

CONCLUSIONS:

Further research is urgently needed to identify the reasons underlying variability between professions and regions to pinpoint strategies for maximizing adherence and improving the safety of HCPs.

• Authors: Oliver A Darwish, Ayushi Aggarwal, Mehran Karvar, Chenhao Ma, Valentin Haug, Mengfan Wu, Dennis P Orgill, Adriana C Panayi
• Journal: Disaster medicine and public health preparedness (Disaster Med Public Health Prep) Vol. 16 Issue 4 Pg. 1331-1333 (08 2022) ISSN: 1938-744X [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 33413704 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural)

Topics

• United States (epidemiology)
• Humans
• Pandemics (prevention & control)
• Personal Protective Equipment
• COVID-19 (epidemiology, prevention & control)
• Health Personnel
• Delivery of Health Care